A lot of attention is on the presidential contest right now, but another fierce battle for Congress is percolating away just underneath the surface. But as usual, some districts figure to be hotter than others. Today, we’ll identify ten where the cash spigot is open full throttle. The list, from CQPolitics, focuses on the battle for the House of Representatives. It doesn’t necessarily name the richest candidates, instead showing the ten who have picked up the most cash in the last quarter. There are six Democrats and four Republicans. Maybe one of them will be spending money in your contour area.
They are: (1) Raul Martinez (D-FL-21), 593K on hand, 593K increase; (2) Joe Sestak (D-PA-7) (i), 2.26M cash on hand, 549K increase; (3) Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL-21) (i), 1.45M cash on hand, 547K increase; (4) Patrick J. Murphy (D-PA-8) (i), 1.66M cash on hand, 487K increase; (5) Mark Steven Kirk (R-IL-10) (i), 2.25M cash on hand, 462K increase; (6) Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY-20) (i), 2.47M cash on hand, 433K increase; (7) Gerry Connolly (D-VA-11), 422K cash on hand, 422K increase; (8) Anne M. Northrup (R-KY-3), 428K cash on hand, 422K increase; (9) Tom Manion (R-PA-8), 417K cash on hand, 417K increase; (10) John H. Adler (D-NJ-3), 1M cash on hand, 416K increase.
RBR/TVBR observation: If you noticed that there are 10 candidates listed here, but only eight Congressional districts, then you noticed two particulary hot battleground districts shaping up. Florida 21 holds the 1st and 3rd slots on this list. The Republican is only #3 in recent donations, but the Democrat had nothing going into the latest reporting cycle — in all, over 2M is in the bank combined among the pair. Pennsylvania 8 has two as well, holding 4th and 8th place on the chart. In this case the Democrat is well ahead in the Republican in the cash wars, with the Republican getting a late start. They two have just over 2M combined in the bank.
One candidate is right here in the district of the RBR/TVBR Washington bureau. Jerry Connolly is one among many from both parties vying for the seat being vacated by long-time rep Tom Davis (R-VA). This is one district where the candidates should be thinking hard about using radio — Washington DC television commands top-10 market rates, but VA-11 is but one of many suburban areas. No matter what broadcast media you buy, you’re going to waste a lot of impressions, but a lot of the residents spend a significant portion of their time stuck in traffic twice daily.
